For opera conductors, the Ring cycle remains the professional Everest. So the fact that Andrew Davis has just completed his first Ring at the Lyric Opera in Chicago marks not merely a career peak for one of this country’s most important conductors, it is also a major event for British music – even if it is taking place thousands of miles from home.
Scene from Götterdämmerung (Photo: Lyric Opera of Chicago)
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Martin Kettle [The Guardian, 7 Apr 05]
For opera conductors, the Ring cycle remains the professional Everest. So the fact that Andrew Davis has just completed his first Ring at the Lyric Opera in Chicago marks not merely a career peak for one of this country's most important conductors, it is also a major event for British music — even if it is taking place thousands of miles from home.
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Chicago opera marks 50 years with staging of Wagner's masterwork
By Lawrence A. Johnson [Chicago Sun-Times, 7 Apr 05]
CHICAGO -- The Lyric Opera of Chicago is celebrating its 50th anniversary season in ambitious style, closing its year with a revival of Wagner's sprawling Der Ring des Nibelungen.
Encompassing four operas and nearly 16 hours of performance time, The Ring of the Nibelungen — popularly known as the Ring cycle or just The Ring — remains the largest and most staggeringly ambitious work in classical music. It took Wagner 28 years to complete his musical epic, and its blend of Norse-German mythology remains hugely influential today. People who don't know a note of The Ring will be familiar with its literature and pop-culture offshoots, from its oft-satirized breast-plated heroines to recent acclaimed film versions of Tolkien.